December 4, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



581 



for market purposes, and in the neighborhood of Boston it lias 

 been the most profitable pink variety grown. /1 u 17 



Newton Highlands, Mass. ' A. H. r . 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



WE are in the midst of the Chrysanthemum season, and the 

 so-called centenary of the introduction of this plant into 

 English gardens is being duly honored by exhibitions, con- 

 ferences and publications of all kinds. The value of the Chry- 

 santhemum as a decorative plant is second only to that of the 



These are decorative plants which may stand alone and form 

 a picture by themselves. The e.x'hibition plant here ,is a 

 totally different thing. The cut flowers are many of them really 

 wonderful productions, and this year they are, perhaps, better 

 than usual, though the exceptional mildness of the weather 

 this month and last has not been favorable to Chrysanthe- 

 mums, the flowers being somewhat weak and flabby. 



The Conference held at Chiswick was a great success in 

 papers by specialists and a general comparing of ideas and 

 opinions relative to the plants. Mr. Hemsley, a member 

 of the Kew staff, dealt with the botany and literature of the 

 Chrysanthemum. We are not much concerned with the name 



Fig. 147. — Clii"ysantliemum JMrs. Foltler — See page 580. 



Rose. Easily grown, inexpensive, yielding splendid results in 

 a short time, accommodating as regards size and habit, almost 

 endless in the variety of shade, size and form of its flowers, 

 the Chrysanthemum is indeed a magnificent garden-plant. 

 Exhibitions such as these teach a great deal, and so also do 

 conferences; but the real beauty of the plants is rarely revealed 

 at either. I confess to a weakness for a plant natural in shape, 

 well-leaved and full of flowers, not large and mop-like, with 

 their crutch-like props, but medium in size, and plenty of them. 

 I have seen a few such plants, their names Val d'Andorre, Alice 

 Bird, Edwin Molyneux, Queen of England and such like. 

 They were plants of various heights, perfect in foliage, and 

 each bearing not three or four, but twenty or thirty, blooms. 



of the species from which the garden plants originated; other- 

 wise Mr. Hemsley 's discovery that by right of priority C. tnori- 

 folinvi is the proper name for the plant hitherto known as C. 

 Sinense would alarm those who object to the disturbance of 

 old names which have become as household words. Mr. 

 Shirley Hibberd, Mr. Harman Payne and Mr. E. Molyneux, 

 three men whose names stand first amongst admirers and 

 growers of the Chrysanthemum, also contributed interesting 

 papers on its history and development. 



The exhibition of the National Chrysanthemum Society, 

 which was held this week at the Aquarium, was remarkable 

 for the display of good standard sorts rather than for anything 

 new. The principal exhibitor of new kinds was Mr. Cannell. 



